"Mirror Systems, Mental Simulation, and Mindreading"


Mirror systems clearly constitute one form of mental simulation, and they are critical to at least some species of low-level mindreading. But does mirroring by itself constitute mindreading? Does it constitute, by itself, a species of interpersonal understanding? If not, what must accompany mirroring to achieve these effects? Similarly, is mirroring the only kind of mental simulation? If not, how does the mirror species of simulation differ from other kinds of simulation? And what roles do these play, respectively, in mindreading?